Postpartum depression
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:( Has anyone ever come across a patient that was experiencing pp depression? What were your clues that the pt. may have been suffering?... Read More

Dec 17, '06

I can totally relate to HvnsntRN's comments. I had PPD after both my births. The second was twins. The sleep deprivation doesn't help matters either. I could tell that even within the depression, my mood would be up or down depending on how much sleep I got.

Luckily, I never thought of hurting myself or my children. I just felt like I was not a good mom at times. I always thought I should be doing things better. I felt so overwhelmed.

Other things that contributed to my PPD was the fact that I suffer from depression anyway. Also, my daughter was diagnosed with autism when my twins were only about 3 months old. That was tough. I cried for two days -- not because of her diagnosis, but because when I realized that she had receptive language problems, that meant I had been too strict with a child who couldn't understand what was expected of her.

Sep 13, '08

I'm grateful for all of the women in this thread for coming forward and talking about their own experiences with PPD, and for bringing attention to the not uncommon problem of postpartum depression and anxiety.

Anywhere from 1 in 10, to as many as 1 in 4, new dads experience postpartum depression. And a man's risk of PPND doubles if his partner is depressed. HALF of all men whose partners have PPD are depressed themselves.

Although the symptoms can differ in men, the consequences for a man and his family (including long-term negative consequences for his child's emotional and behavioral development) are not less severe for men than women.

I thought you might like to know about a web site for men with PPND: http://www.SadDaddy.com. It's the only Internet site specifically for new dads with depression, and includes lots of information - including potential causes, an self-assessment for new fathers to complete, and an online forum for dads to talk with each other.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (mentioned above) has also been validated with men. A copy of the assessment is available at http://www.SadDaddy.com for a man to complete, to determine whether he might be depressed and need to seek help. Please note that the scoring for men is different than scoring for women.